What do you expect from AoW IV?

[noname222]

1) Production/research carry-over, it was really usefull in planetfall.
2) Moddable strategical/tactical ai, after you learn how ai works it kinda becomes push-over( A couple of mods with different ai's would be great.
3) Actually sectors are more ai friendly in planetfall, you can't place a city so it could produce uber-units like in regular aow-3. So something similar could be good , maybe there should be lots of 'small' sectors.
4) Moddable t1-t4 were good as well, should be copied as swappable armor/shields/etc for regular units for aow4.

 

[Rodmar18]

Can units loot equipment on the battle field? (no magic items for heroes, simply unit custom upgrades such as elven sword, dragonscale armour, etc.)

 

[THE-Black-Knight]

DARK ELVES! With their exquisite Gothic looks. BLACK towers and all!

Also a "My Empire" System similar to that in Planetfall, but playable also as Multiplayer. The winner of the last game becomes the Emperor and gets a few boosts to his armies, the other players will challenge him in the following maps. (It should be possible to add new players for future games)

No teleporters in any shape or form (or optional for those who like silly stuff)

I loved the Wizard towers so seeing them again wouldn't bother me,

and I also loved the invisible elven cities in AOWSM

 

[Rodmar18]

1. Hex type on the strategic map would determine the tactical map as currently, but tactical map would have hex types as well, that alter units' combat stats. For instance, a swamp map would feature marsh and solid ground, and movement and defenses could be altered, depending on whether hex a unit is standing on.
2. Tactical hexes would be altered by some unit statuses and abilities, the same way any "Path of" ability acts on strategic hexes. Thus, a destroyed corpse or stinking unt pollute its hex for a few round (at least 1, at most until cadaver disappears). An explosion or any area effect would impact visually hexes (also possibly affect gameplay as per 1.). "Path of" abilities could also alter tactical hexes and have an "Inspiration"-like effect on adjacent units.
3. Stinky would be a lasting status (at least 1 round), and wouldn't thus disappear as soon as its source is killed.
4. A new layer would be added to RNG effects in combat: instead of just feedling with critical hits, morale could trigger random "irrational", or fuzzy acting, so as to make AI behaviour less predictible; units could retreat behind first line, units could choose to attack a non-optimal target, healers could choose to move/attack instead of healing less wounded units, ranged units could choose to go melee in spite of better odds with their ranged attack (and the reverse), etc. These random occurences would be rare enough to not feel like utter randomness, just fuzzy when several tactical options are available, or sub-optimal when unit is under stress. I guess that instead of always choosing the best action, a unit would draw its next action from a ponderated list based on its current morale and battle awareness. Eventually, some player-controlled units could also draw "out-of-control" rounds and would then act like AI-controlled units (as above), as a middle path between player-controlled and Panick/Berserk statuses. Indeed, this proposal is about adding a new layer of 1-round, sub-intensity Criticals/Panick/Berserk/Taunt events. Alternatively, they could be only added to current RNG mechanics, as when a chance for being Panicked is splitted/overhauled to a set of a chances for Panick-related effects.

 

[ten9]

I would like to see an occasional merchant come by to offer me rare goods or units. I loved that in the old game Master of Magic.

 

[Rodmar18]

Merchant also exists in the TBS game Warlords.

 

[Tantarian]

It would be really nice to have Syrons and Archons back in AOW IV. Also, more classes and a better alignment
system.

 

[ten9]

Most important: no more good orcs or good goblins. This kills the immersion, the way I can identify with the races. To me this is very important. Most of us have deeply settled ideas about the lord of the ring races. It never felt right to turn that upsidedown. I also have no problem if the game is highly assymmetrical. Just leave it to the modders afterwards to work on balance for those that want that.

 

[Rodmar18]

Most important: no more good orcs or good goblins. This kills the immersion, the way I can identify with the races. To me this is very important. Most of us have deeply settled ideas about the lord of the ring races. It never felt right to turn that upsidedown.

Yeah, the universe in AoW 3 is definitively not tolkienesque.

Best guess (and hope) is that AoW 4 will be a follow-up of AoW 3, which in turn is a follow-up of AoW 2.
In AoW 2, no faction (race or sphere of magic) is genuinely good or bad. It's more subtle, and their acting depends on the personality of their leader (player or wizard-king).
Alignements exist, but they are merely for RP and status effects (vulnerability to Champion attacks), just like in AoW 3.

Many games have departed from the Lord of the Rings settings, from (World of) Warcraft to Armies of Exigo to Warlords (Battlecry) to TES(O) to ...
And Tolkien departed a lot from the original folk lore.

 

[BeltarTheLion]

I think this is a completelly wrong statement of a question will the game have racial alignment or will not. Just like will the game have any other X or Y mechanics or will not. F. e. AoW3 introduced territorial control mechanics and made it really good. In Planetfall it's not so good because it looks unnatural (who keeps the borders between territories when there's no government and etc?). It gives only specifiec hexes to build a settlement and in later game it's hard to tell which province belongs to which city.

In AoW 1/2 you can pick a good race and genocide every other races and still be good. And neutral alignment aloows to hire every race except Undeads and Archons. The problems with logic and the problems in balance. At least AoW3 gave some felling of the evolution not just Orcs fighting Elves for thousand years without any reason behind Orcs being bad and Elves been good.

I see no problem that AoW3 introduced classes. (In fact heroes had classes in AoW2 but it was minor.) In fact it's absolutelly logical idea because the class determines the way to play and the race as it was in AoW1/2 does not. When people say that AoW SM had 15 races and that was cool it makes me laugh because the differences between races were minimal. AoW3 suggested more varitive gameplay but it has problems with integration of the class system and the racial system. Like class units being too strong and too universal and often competing with racial units. Just 1 racial T3 unit and the absence of racial T4 units don't feel good too.

Planetfall tried to fix this disbalance and turned classes to optional secret technologies and introduced racial researches. With returning of unit enchantments in form of mods and making flying units airborne again. So they immediatelly faced the problem of total dominance of rangeed attacks and the game mechanics of keeping units under cover. There's not much covers in the air...

So it's pointless discussion what a game should have and what should not. Only realization and integration with other mechanics matter.

 

[vota dc]

1) Hit and miss mechanic again and no more squad units but always single units. I would keep aow3 defense to mitigate damage and renamed It "armor" and reintroduce Attack and defense.

2) Buildable cities that grow from level 0 to level 1. Higher level cities that produce tier 2, 3 and 4 are fixed and never grow (you need to upgrade them unless you produce tier 0) and already placed on map like AOW 1

3) No production waste. You can produce more units in a single turn if you exceed resources.

4) Class with units that change according to the race. Also fewer class units, in some case class units could replace racial units.

5) Flying units again like 1-2 but forced to land after some turns to avoid being unkillable in melee when put on defense or being impossible foes to melee in case of Flying+ranged.

6) Campaign to rally allies like aow1 but based on races and class

 

[BeltarTheLion]

Hit and miss mechanic again

Just NO

Higher level cities that produce tier 2, 3 and 4 are fixed and never grow

Even bigger NO

Class with units that change according to the race.

Planetfall has this. And I don't understand why one race has claas unit as a good shooter and another like useless melee flyer.

Flying units again like 1-2 but forced to land after some turns to avoid being unkillable in melee

1) If flying then flying.
2) Play Planetfall you'll learn a lot about controlling flying units in 3D world. Especially when you need to move then by 1 hex

 

[vota dc]

Planetfall has this. And I don't understand why one race has claas unit as a good shooter and another like useless melee flyer

Sounds badly implemented. With fewer class units It should be possibile to cover races weakness and avoid adding similar units.

 

[phoenix4m]

Omg omg omg! Please tell me its true and not just a rumor.
I have been hoping so much for years that the real AOW 4 would come.

AOW3 was perfect from all sides with the expansions.
Please do not change much of the combat strategy and gameplay. It was perfect.

If any try to make the design of characters and races less cartoonish at least for the Halfings and Tigrans. Especially the Tigrans, they look like mistreated cats instead of lethal predators.


Also a general lift of the combat graphics is much needed.
Thank you

 

[Fonzosh]

After having played around 1500 hours of AoW 3 and I dont know how many hours of Shadowmagic and AoW 1, I can see some things still missing. I would say that the same interface for the 3 would be great, since it was very easy (both for the casual player and the advanced) and quick to get used to (with planetfall there is a bit of a startup to learn how to find the info you need and that may discourage players not fans of the series. I would keep AoW III more or less the same (sure, hot up the graphics and the sound, but otherwise let it be) and only add things to an allready great game. Things I would add is the following:
1. Diplomatics: The Planetfall diplomatic screen is great with a lot more options.
2. Let the builder live a little: Allow it to actually do more stuff, like building small farms, lumbermills aso. Also maybe small trade huts for the new trade system (se below)
3. Let the sea be important: A great way to do this is with trade routes. In my wiev, a trade route in AoW 4 would do two things, either generate gold or transport special substances. The special substances allow you to build the units with special abilities (like for example, build infantry units with Fear strike) in a city that doesnt have the special dwelling in its area. This trade route system would make sea baing a lot more important, since the trade routes could be plundered and needs to be protected. A whole new tech could be built around this, starting with 2 unarmed caravan units and ending with 6 juggernauts carrying around your goods. Also all the sea areas should produce growth to the city and if there is an "Enemy in the domain", this growth is cancelled. This would make sea a valuable resource.
4. Allow all units that are no race specific to be able to "Evolve". (for example, Troll to troll King, feathered serpent to ancient feathered serpent aso).
5. Allow 2 different casting times of combat spells. One that doesnt en the turn for the hero (since in AoW III you hade several spells that while cool was not used since they took an important action from the hero that he could use in much better ways) and the other functioning at it does today.
6. Reintroduce some skills from Shadow magic, for example Round attack
7. Randomzied maps that allow you to easy build new maps. AoW III hade hell with this wich made mapmaking a drag. Allow a player to use a randomized map and correct it and presto you can put a new map in steam
8. Listen to the modding community. Do something like Xcom. The more they listened and allowed the modding community to put in inputs, the better the game became.

Well, that is about it.

 

[j_c_p]

As AOW3 a Linux version.

 

[THE-Black-Knight]

The most important suggestion I can give would be to do something that has been lost after AOW SM: Allow more details (and mostly limitations) for game customization. LIMITATIONS is the KEY!

Allow to start games without a specific unit, or only allow cities of a particular race to only produce tier II units. The AOW games are usually so rich that just by allowing us to limit some specific aspect, the result could create a whole different game experience.

Make some units unavailable on specific maps because a certain resource is just rare in that specific game!

For example I like AOW III but after playing it for a while one realizes that by relying heavily on units that can dominate, charm or seduce there isn't almost the need to produce new units anymore. I could even produce items that would give my heroes those super skills!!! That exploit was probably not intended but could have simply been prevented by allowing the option of not allowing specific units or skills in maps. (And I know that the developers agree because those skills have completely disappeared in Planetfall).

Also if a specific map has special rules, it should be possible to see a list of them while in game (essential in multiplayer).

Dwellings in AOWIII would become another exploit. The player who finds a Dragon Dwelling for example, could decide which Dragon to produce and heavily rely on that one units. The result is that none would ever build Wyverns or White Dragons, since the red ones are usually the best choice. AOWIII is game where you can create hundeds of different units but then every time you would end up just mass producing red Dragons or Fire Giants. Just allow to uncheck those units while create a map, not every exploit can be foreseen while developing a game, but precautions can be taken!

Also by allowing Dwellings to only produce one kind of units (white dragons in ice terrain, red in lava maybe...) not only would have made more sense but would have created a lot of interesting limitations to play with and a lot more variety. We would have had 20 different dwellings instead than the four or five the game offer: one for each of its units.

Following the same logic I wouldn't have limited the choice regarding how many dwellings to allow based on a "Few - Normal - Many" setting. I believe just adding the specific number could have been more interesting. So what if certain Dwelling would have been almost useless because they only produce for example unicorns? Maps would have been more diversified with that system and that's all that matters. Maybe in one specific map instead there is only one Dwelling that produces powerful units and finding it would become an important achievement!

Obviously I don't know how AOW IV will be structured, and if it even will have dwellings, all I am saying allow the chance of personalize each game by adding limitations.

 

[BeltarTheLion]

Randomzied maps that allow you to easy build new maps. AoW III hade hell with this wich made mapmaking a drag. Allow a player to use a randomized map and correct it and presto you can put a new map in steam

And be ready for thousands "fan-made" shit maps. I guess why this options was disabled in the 1st place.

Make some units unavailable on specific maps because a certain resource is just rare in that specific game!

Units have roles. So removing some units can just ruin the game.
Planetfall realizes limitation of T3 units because cosmite is never enough but it turned out that 2 cosmite for upkeep T4 unit? Thx but no better build more T3s this thing would work only in PvP where T4 unit will be used in one final fight. And AI builds a lot of T1-2 units and very few T3 so when the player has a bunch of T3s AI can not do serious damage.

that by relying heavily on units that can dominate, charm or seduce there isn't almost the need to produce new units anymore

That's why these things were nerfed in Balance mod. But succubs are still overpowered because they have a lot of elemental resists, long range cursing, Seducing as their main feature, flying and still very close in melee combat to racial T3 units. I think their attack must be reduced by 3 at least. Shadow Stalkers are just T3.5 units and own everything. Many races (Goblins, Frostlings, Halflings) don'e even have units to do any significant damage.

because those skills have completely disappeared in Planetfal

Is has it's own quirks like tonnes of stun, and madness so your unit shoots everything around.

The player who finds a Dragon Dwelling for example, could decide which Dragon to produce and heavily rely on that one units.

The player must build another structure in the settlment to produce another unit. So why bother spam what you already have. BTW Dragon dwellings sucks. The cost a lot of money to buy if you not attack them you've to protrct them for many turns till you'll have the 1st dragon. And then 5 turns for the nex one... Wyverns just sucks. They sucks even as Sorcerer's summons because they've no strong abilities (like shield, a lot of HP and etc) to survive damage and vulnerable to pikes.

Planetfall used their molding system to give longevity to early game units and seemed like they squished down late-game units to be less completely eclipsing in power.

In fact it's opposite T2 units have no chances in late game in Planetfall. There choice is to spend cosmite or not to spend.

 

[Goemoe]

I prefer to have lots of "shit" maps to near to no maps at all. For ten maps, you name shit, there will be at least one, I would enjoy. With the random map feature I would have done quite some maps as well, which would not end up as shit maps as you call them.

Yes there are some maps now, even good ones but they are few, very few. I would prefer to have much much more, no matter the quality. The community would rate and list them accordingly. I remember good old homam days.

So +1 for randomized editable maps!

 

[Refineus]

Perhaps developers should release a guide along with the level editor for next game. 85 % of the maps released on steam workshop is poorly set up as creators typically don't care.

Random map generated should be used as a reference rather than a ripoff. Looking at Heroes 3 how many crappy maps pushed out for no reason.

Setting up a multiplayer map in AoW3 is by far more complex as players need to define random factors like adventure mode, strong stacks, weak, cities, settlers etc to match settings similar how random maps are generated. That was never declared really when they shipped the game.

But the random generated maps is enough in my opinion. If players decide to create their own it will anyway be better with a handcrafted map that has identity.